Chepstow Racecourse marks 100 years of racing in August 2026

Chepstow Racecourse in Monmouthshire is marking 100 years of horse racing in August 2026, a century after its inaugural meeting in August 1926 which drew about 20,000 spectators. The centenary comes amid recollections of the venue’s wartime role as an RAF base and its long association with the Welsh Grand National.

The racecourse was established after 10 local dignitaries pooled funds to buy 370 undulating acres from the Piercefield Park estate and build a near-two-mile course. Lords Tredegar, Glanely and Queenborough contributed to the purchase, with Hastings Clay (director), Sir David Hughes Morgan (chairman), Captain A W Wingate (secretary and manager) of the Chepstow Racecourse Company and R G Nichols C B E of the Great Eastern Railway overseeing construction. Lord Harewood’s Conca D’Oro won the first race at the August 1926 meeting and the first jumps meeting was staged a year later. The venue faced severe financial difficulties in its first decade but went on to host the Welsh Grand National for more than 70 years.

Former Welsh jump jockey Alan Johns praised the track’s appeal to riders, saying, "Unanimously, Chepstow is loved by jockeys," he said. He described it as a big galloping track with long straights and sweeping bends that suit strong horses and added that horses tend to jump well at Chepstow.

A run by Sir Gordon Richards in October 1933 remains part of the course’s lore: after a win at Nottingham he recorded six victories at Chepstow the next day and added five more the following day at the same meeting, a sequence of 12 wins that stands as a world record. Chepstow has hosted other notable achievements and memorable occasions across its history.

The story of Dream Alliance began on an allotment near Blackwood where Janet Vokes raised the horse for a syndicate whose members contributed £10 a week. After Dream Alliance suffered a severed leg tendon in 2008 the syndicate paid £20,000 for pioneering stem-cell treatment; the horse returned to racing and, ridden by Tom O'Brien, won the Welsh Grand National in 2009 at odds of 20-1. The horse’s story was adapted into the film Dream Horse, released in 2021 and starring Toni Collette and Damian Lewis.

Since 1949 the Welsh Grand National has been the highlight of Chepstow’s calendar and is traditionally held during the Christmas festive period. Horses to complete the Aintree and Chepstow double include Bindaree, Corbiere, Earth Summit, Rag Trade and Silver Birch, while Burrough Hill Lad, Cool Ground, Master Oats and Native River went from successes at Chepstow to Cheltenham Gold Cup glory. One of the most recent memorable winners was Haiti Couleurs, trained by Rebecca Curtis and ridden by Sean Bowen to victory in the 2025 Welsh Grand National. The venue also hosted the World International Cross Country Championship in 1976.

The racecourse has hosted concerts including performances by Tom Jones and underwent conversion into an RAF base during the Second World War; it nearly closed within months of opening before establishing itself as one of the courses staging both flat and jumps racing year‑round. The site’s custodians and long-serving staff are notable: Chepstow has employees with decades of service that racecourse executive director Luke Admans cites as part of the venue’s character.

Organisers have introduced the Welsh Racing Festival, first held last October to launch the British National Hunt season, and are planning a three-day jump racing festival they hope will provide an "intimate" alternative to the Cheltenham Festival. Admans will mark the centenary with a dinner at Chepstow on Thursday and said, "I wanted to do something that was going to pay tribute to the 100 years of the racecourse and all the effort it took to get the racecourse open and the work that everyone's done [in that time] to make it such an amazing venue," adding, "We've got an amazing team. We have a lady who's been working in the annual members area for 53 years and a couple of guys on the grounds team that have been here more than 40 years. "It's one of them places that I think you come and you fall in love with working here which is amazing and the staff are a tribute to the venue."